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(Also known as Passion Sunday) This is the day on which many churches have traditionally turned their thoughts to the suffering of Jesus. The word ‘passion’ comes from a Latin word meaning to suffer. If you are ‘compassionate’, you suffer alongside (with) someone. We...

(Also known as Mothering Sunday) Mothering Sunday was originally a day on which Christian families would come to worship in their ‘mother church’, typically either the church in which they had been baptised or the main church or cathedral of the area. In the course of...

Our prayer last week concerned ‘staying on the path of God’s love’. What does this mean? We know Christ’s teaching on the importance of love:   One of [the Pharisees], a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the...

How is the date of Easter calculated? We read in the Gospels that the Friday on which Christ was crucified was the day before the Jews celebrated Passover – whose date followed a very complicated pattern – you can have fun trying to work it out from:...

We are now well and truly into Lent. Ash Wednesday, the first day in Lent, is behind us. Why Ash Wednesday? Ashes, often linked to the wearing of sackcloth in the Old Testament of the Bible, are traditionally a sign of repentance, a sign that we intend to change our...

What is Lent? The word comes from an old English word Lengten meaning 'lengthen'. Lent is observed in spring, when the days begin to get longer (cf. modern German Lenz = springtime).   We celebrated the birth of Jesus at the darkest period of the year, only a day...

Jesus is shown to the world! The first visitors we hear of are the shepherds. Here is Luke’s familiar telling of the powerful message of joy and praise: In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of...

Nearly there! All is ready. Mary and Joseph have arrived in Bethlehem. Our presents have been wrapped; cards have been sent and received. Just a final push… The actual birth was a very ordinary affair. Most families at the time lived very simply, often sharing their...

We think of Christmas as a time of peace and good will, and indeed that is what is promised. But it is not always an easy or comfortable message. God coming to earth shatters all expectations, challenges us, disturbs the accepted order, just as it did for those...

Not long to go now, and we get a real sense of excitement as we approach Christmas: Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child...